Family: Hylidae, Treefrogs view all from this family

Description 3/4-1 1/2" (1.9-3.8 cm). Skin smooth, greenish-gray to brown. Three dark stripes down back; may be broken, reduced, or absent. Heavy dark stripe along each side from snout to leg, passing through eye. White stripe along upper lip. Small round toe tips.

Voice   A rasping, rising trill lasting 1-2 seconds, like the sound of a fingernail running over the teeth of a comb. Males call while sitting upright on floating vegetation.

Breeding All winter in warmer areas of range, late winter to summer in northern areas.

Habitat Grassy areas from dry to swampy to agricultural; also suburbs where pollution and pesticides are not a problem; woodlands; and river swamps.

Range Wisconsin to extreme s. Quebec, south through w. New York and north of the Ohio River to c. Oklahoma, west to Nebraska and South Dakota, and ne. Lake Superior; a disjunct population occurs in c. Arizona and New Mexico.

Discussion Nocturnal. Chorus frogs may be heard calling on warm nights in early spring even before all the ice has disappeared from the water. At the slightest threat they disappear beneath the surface. The Upland Chorus Frog (P. feriarum), formerly considered a subspecies of P. triseriata, has thinner dark stripes often broken into rows of small spots; it occurs from e. Pennsylvania and New Jersey south to the Florida panhandle and west to e. Texas and Oklahoma, and north to Kentucky. The Boreal Chorus Frog (P. maculata), also once treated as a subspecies of P. triseriata, has shorter hind legs and the dark back stripes may be broken into spots; it occurs from nw. Canada near Great Bear Lake to n. Ontario, south through n. Michigan to n. New Mexico, west to c. Utah, e. Idaho and along the e. slopes of the Rocky Mountains to British Columbia.